A blog sharing my first-hand experience at cooking & baking. A self-taught home cook/baker who wants to show you that anyone can do it with the right tools, attitude and knowledge. You can do it... at home!

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Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Little Diva (not me, it's Macaron) went to Bangkok!

I had an impromptu short trip to Bangkok last month. My sister had a promotional ticket through Royal Orchid Plus at a half price. I only bought ticket a month before the trip and stayed in Bangkok for few weeks (I also went to Macau and Hong Kong for five days during that time, which I’m hoping to write a post about it).

My family and friends in Bangkok regularly asked me to bring back me-made macarons. These little beauties are so tempting that they so want to try. Macaron fever is slowing catching on in Thailand. They are more likely to be found in luxury hotels’ and/or high-end bakeries/cafes.I had some macarons from Plaza Athenee Hotel while I was there. Umm, let me say they were far, far from good.

Macarons from The Plaza Athenee

I had few weeks to make macarons before the trip. I made one batch (with one or two flavours) every week and freeze them (minus my and S’ consumption). So, I ended up with six flavours to take back to Bangkok; chocolate peanut butter, cumquat, green tea, cherry, lemon and raspberry macarons.

Macarons freeze well. There are little, if any, degradations provided that they are defrosted properly. Some macaron flavours/fillings also freeze better than others (chocolate ganache and almond/nut butter in particular).

Yes, in general, they freeze well. However, in this case, I was taking them across two continents, travelled over 7,000 kilometres to get from Melbourne to Bangkok. They went across two climate zones with temperature fluctuations in between; from –18c in the freezer to 11c ambient temperature in Melbourne and to 32C (with high humidity) in Bangkok. Those poor macarons had been through a lot before they were presented to my family and friends. Anyhow, they still tasted great (though some of them were a bit soft and too moist as a result of condensation). They received lots of praises from the eaters. It was also wonderful to share these heavenly morsels with others.

Note to self:

If I am to take macarons to travel long distance again, I would make ones with chocolate ganache or butter-based fillings. It would be less prone to condensation.

After the long trip, the little diva (mon macarons) needs a good rest in the freezer to firm up before consumption. The hot and humid weather in Bangkok did some damages to the little beauties.

All in all, it works quite well. Not that macarons enjoyed the long distance travel but they coped relatively well.

Green tea buttercream – I used the green tea powder bought from my Japan last year. The flavour is not as sweet due to the bitterness of green tea powder.

Cherry buttercream – I generally don’t like to cook things not in season. This is the first time I bought cherries in Winter (it was imported from USA). But my sister love cherry so I wanted to make this flavour for her.

I'm so happy to stumble upon your blog, Sue. I recently baked from the Laduree book, and although their shop sells macarons made with Italian Meringue, the recipe I tried from the book called for French Meringue!

@Ceren - I'm still here. Has stopped blogging for a while, been very busy and need to focus on my little project, so didn't have time to blog. How've you been?

@Annapet - Laduree book might want to give less hassled approach to Macaron home-baker. Italian Meringue method (though not hard) can be a little daunting for many. I recently bought Pierre Herme's Macaron book and I'm having fun trying his recipes.

:)hehe that's good to hear! :DI'm pretty good, school started and aa.. exams too, but I'm doing good at them too hahaI just got a 90 from nutrition! heheTomorrow I have my hygiene exam, studying for it atm.. haha already read it 2 times, but feel like I have to write a summery of it! :DI never thought I would be such a good student lolWhat about you? :)

oh oh, I must say, I just bought a KitchenAid mixer thehe.. a red one, ofc and I will be making bread with it, first thing in the morning(well I would just put my apron& chef hat on and start baking now but.. mom would be complaining, I'm staying us awake for waiting bread to rise, then to be baked, then to be cooled and wrapped haha, it's 10 pm now)

Our house in Bangkok is also flooded. Though not as bad as other parts of the city and country, it is unliveable. My family has been staying in hotel for the past month. It looks like the flood will stay for at least a month or so. The situation is quite bad and disheartened.

I'm Theresia from Indonesia, I've just googling and found your blog about macaroons. Your macaroons was BEAUTIFUL!!! and it looked so delicious and makes me drooling to see it!!!

Well, I've been trying to make macaroons and still not quite perfect (they looked not pretty but they tasted quite good). BTW, I wonder because it seems every recipes that I found on internet, they have equal amount of sugar and ground almond, is it not too sweet? Cause I've make this twice but I'm cutting a half of the sugar amount from the real recipes. Hope you see this and reply soon. Thanks!

Hi Theresia..Thanks for the lovely comments. Yes, the macarons shell can be really sweet, which I find with slightly bitter or acidic filling goes well with macarons. I also reduced the amount of sugar a little in recipe and it works fine (though still a bit sweet).

I guess, you can also reduce the amount of sugar and increase amount of almond meal to compensate. I think it's important to keep the right ratio between dry & wet ingredients in the shell recipe. After all, it's all about experiment...try until you find what works for you.

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About Me

A 30something gals, who is living in Melbourne, Australia....with a family history of migration,... from China to Thailand to Australia. Born and bred in Bangkok, Thailand and moved to Australia about a decade ago.
Never cooked/baked and had no interest in cooking/baking until moving oversea. At first, cooking was the neccessity as a mean of survival....can't afford to eat out everyday and had no mom to cook for me:)